


Nights Like These

by SpiderButler



Series: Nights Like These [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-28
Updated: 2015-09-28
Packaged: 2018-04-23 20:45:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4891642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiderButler/pseuds/SpiderButler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: They work in a bar/cafe and they're a little family along with the regulars, and when the bar closes up they sit in a booth and drink from the bottle and talk all night</p><p>It's nights like this, when Killian thinks how lucky he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nights Like These

**Author's Note:**

> I'm contemplating making this a full length, actual fic, or maybe a series, so if you want more from this universe, let me know :)

The Jolly Roger is a pub. Killian refuses to call it a bar, because to him, a bar sounds much too fancy. In Killian’s half-British mind, a bar has more class; sure the Jolly Roger _has_ a bar (which he currently stands behind), but it is definitely a good-old British pub. The room is dimly lit, giving it a relaxed ambiance. The furniture and walls (and pretty much the entire interior of the building) is dark, cherry wood and dusty gold upholstery, but in a warm, inviting sort of manner. There are three snooker tables lined up in the corner to the right of him, and a table-football table and a table-tennis table on the other side of the room. To the left of him, booths line the walls and corner, high backed and upholstered with leather, but soft and comfortable in a worn, well-used kind of way. There are tables of various sizes surrounded by chairs on the other side of the room. Behind the bar there’s a door leading to the kitchen and through the kitchen there are stairs leading up to the flat above the pub. 

Killian technically owns the bar, but he hates the idea of being one of those men who buys property and rakes in the cash while people who's names he doesn’t know slave away day after day. Instead, he works as the main bartender, and his employees are his family, along with a few of the regulars. There are six others in his team: 

The beautiful Emma, with her golden curls and witty tongue, who sometimes helps him behind the bar and spends most of her time there swiping food from under her brother’s nose in the kitchen (Killian’s pretty sure David notices but doesn’t bother saying anything). She calls herself the maître d’, as if the Jolly Roger was actually smart enough in any way to have a head waitress. 

David, the aforementioned brother, spends most of his time behind the scenes with Robin in the kitchen, slaving away making meals that should be greasy enough to clog your arteries with one bite, but those two somehow manage to keep them healthy enough that with a run everyday, Killian can stay in pretty good shape living off them. 

David’s wife, Mary Margaret, helps Emma on the floor, sweeping up meals from her husband and their friend and serving them with a warm smile and a little piece of friendly chatter to each of the customers. She’s the closest to a mother Killian’s known and she’s a definite mama bear- mess with her family and you’ll regret it. 

Robin, the other cook, has been Killian’s friend (along with David and Emma) since long before the Jolly Roger. He started working for Killian when he and his wife divorced a few years ago. He fell into a slump (one Killian could completely identify with, it was the same after Milah) and Killian and David pulled him out of it, giving him a job to keep him busy and doing something ( _anything_ ). He found a new girlfriend recently and his son, Roland loves her and Killian’s never seen a man grin so much in his life. The couple spend their nights here when Roland’s with his mother. 

Robin was the one who suggested Will, the newest (well, not really new anymore) addition to their team, to Killian. Years ago Will and Killian hadn’t been the best of friends, but after a few years of separation and both suffering some similar rough spots in their lives, it had been all to easy to sit in a booth with a bottle of whiskey and laugh about the old days when a bit of ‘rough and tumble’ had been the biggest problem in their lives. Will now helps Killian man the bar and, on a good night, they can put on a show, throwing mixers to each other, a smart, quick-thinking pair. 

The last of their team is Ruby, who was really the only one of the group who had any experience, or was in anyway prepared for what running a bar would entail. She’d worked at her grandmother’s diner until she’d decided that it was time for her to fly the nest. When she’d started she’d been a little bit of an exhibitionist, dressed in short hemlines and plunging necklines and bold make up. She’s still flirtatious and shameless, but after a couple of months of working at the Jolly Roger (and, Killian thinks, when she met her new med-student boyfriend) she toned it down. The group were careful not to mention the sudden change in fashion sense, but Ruby seemed happier and more at home, and Killian thinks that maybe explains what they have- they’re a group of broken misfits, who together managed to fix each others’ broken parts until they were barely visible cracks. 

The other people who make up their group, the aforementioned regulars, consist of Regina, Robin’s lawyer girlfriend (really Killian has no idea how his mate managed to snag a woman with always-flawless red lipstick and a deservedly high salary), Ruby’s boyfriend Victor, who’ll sit and study at a table until the bar closes up, and Emma and David’s youngest brother who, at seventeen, has been deemed old enough to join the group, as long as he promises not to tell people about the one or two beers he’s allowed when his siblings are in a good mood (which is most nights, but as long as no one mentions that, it’s all good). He drops in after school, and joins Victor when he has homework to do, or sits at the bar and chatters away when he doesn’t. Killian sometimes wonders if it’s healthy for Henry to spend so much time at the pub, but he seems happy, and Killian would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy the boy’s company, so he doesn’t bother to point it out. 

* * *

It's nights like these that Killian thinks about how well his life has turned out. The Jolly Roger is buzzing, full enough that Killian and Will are lucky to catch a break, and Emma, Mary Margaret and Ruby are constantly floating across the floor, but still empty enough that they can chat with the patrons they know, and Killian can catch Emma’s eye a couple of times throughout the night and offer her a wink (to which she always rolls her eyes, but a smile creeps onto her face without fail) or a quick word and a nudge (or occasionally a kiss- she isn’t big on PDA while they’re working, but later when they’re alone in his bed, she always makes up for it). Regina and Henry sit at the bar, Regina with some sort of cocktail, and Henry with a coke (he’s only allowed soft drinks during open hours), chatting away happily. Victor, Ruby’s boyfriend (they usually refer to him by his surname, Whale, though) sits at an empty booth not far away, scribbling things onto a notepad, and Ruby occasionally floats past with a squeeze of his shoulder or a hair ruffle. He’ll join the other two soon, and it won’t be long after that people will begin to filter out. 

Killian’s proved correct when, about twenty minutes later, Whale slides his file and notebook into his bag and grabs his stuff from the booth, sliding onto the stool next to Henry. Will and Ruby have joined the small group on the other side of the bar, chatting away, and Robin ducks out of the kitchen for a little while to kiss his girlfriend in greeting and ruffle Henry’s hair, and it isn’t much later that the last few customers exit, calling their goodnights to the little ragtail family and then it’s just them. Henry hops off his stool to help his sisters (technically one’s a sister-in-law, but she might as well be his sister) wipe off the tables, and David and Robin bring out the onion rings and chips and fries and whatever else is left over from the day.

The group find themselves tucked into the corner booth, Emma curled under Killian’s arm, a bottle of rum between them, surrounded by their family. Later, when they split and head to their homes in the early hours of the morning, Emma and Killian will crawl up the stairs laughing and sharing kisses and they’ll collapse into bed together and he’ll fall asleep later with a smile on his face he couldn’t dim if he tried.

Robin and Will are having some debate about methods of thieving, of all topics, and Emma breaks a fry in half and chucks a piece at each of them, adding her argument to the debate. Regina rolls her eyes and tells the three of them that she will not represent any of them in court if they decide to act on their ideas. Henry and Mary Margaret are looking at something on the lad’s phone and Ruby and Whale are lost in each other’s smiles. David grins exasperatedly at Killian across the table, and takes a swig of his beer, and Killian chuckles. Emma elbows him gently and he looks down at her. 

“Alright?” 

“Yeah,” Killian smiles, and presses a kiss to her hair. “Yeah, I’m alright.” 

Yeah, it's nights like these that Killian thinks (knows) how lucky he is.


End file.
